


Seeking A Friend for the End of the Game

by loveliestfirebird



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hockey, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 17:55:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11109828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveliestfirebird/pseuds/loveliestfirebird
Summary: Goalie and team captain Aveyard Gold finds a different kind of celebration party at the end of the hockey season.





	Seeking A Friend for the End of the Game

**Author's Note:**

> my nashville predators are doing a-ok for the first time ever and i am inspired.

The Storybrooke Princes were a smaller hockey group for the first fifteen years of their establishment. They played against everyone else in the NHL, sure Nobody paid them any mind and tickets to their games were generally won at a church raffle. The biggest news that came out of them was when their goalie married a country singing superstar a little over a decade ago. It was seen as more of a sweet story that Ariel had married Eric Fisher, someone from where she planted her roots, than them becoming a celebrity power couple. Mostly people wondered how in the seven seas they met.

Then David Nolan, owner of the Princes, signed Aveyard Gold. Gold's immigration from Scotland caught a few eyes, but only out of curiosity. His first five years definitely built him up a reputation that was bigger than the entire team: he was a beast on the ice. On average thirty shots were sent his way and only two got by in an entire game. With the Princes being so small, they still had to win more than any other team just to be a spare thought in the league. With the addition of Gold, their chances of traveling outside of Maine skyrocketed. At his fifth year, he was made team captain. Not for his sportsmanship by any means. Because he knew the ice and the game as though it ran through his own blood.

Nolan changed the color of the uniforms from white and blue to white, blue, and gold. They sold more goldish yellowish shirts than anything else in the last twenty years. People traveled from China to the small Storybrooke town without a proper arena to watch him play. Die hard fans of other sports teams supported Gold when he was on the ice if nothing else. He wasn't just good, he was an inspiration for people immigrating to pursue their dreams. He didn't do too many interviews at first because his accent was too fast, but had someone keep up his social media profiles. Late at night when he missed his son quite terribly, he'd read the fan messages. He never showed it, but Gold would tape them all to his refrigerator if he could.

The playoffs for the Stanley Cup came straight out of nowhere in a blast of golden light. It didn't even register in his mind how the next games were such a big deal until news people started appearing more at the games. NBC and ESPN started covering the Princes games and people were getting mad that it wasn't on their regular cable news channel. It was his seventh year playing goalie under David Nolan and his first as team captain. He'd whipped them all during practice, especially Eric Fisher since he was more of the face of their team. A week ago Mary Margaret had brought a high school business class through the locker rooms and they weren't bored anymore. Several of the kids wanted pictures by his locker. This kind of attention didn't happen to him on a day to day basis. It didn't register with Gold how lonely his existence had been the last near decade until a conversation before Game 1.

"Win or lose, I'm getting laid tonight." Killian Jones announced, smearing eyeliner onto himself with Jefferson Madden.

"Grace promised to stay up tonight and watch." Jefferson said, just as happy.

"What are you doing, Avery?" Archie Hopper, the team physician who was busy texting away a waitress from upstate, genuinely asked.

"Grab a drink, get some sleep, get ready for next week's game." He shrugged, not thinking much of it.

"And what were you planning on doing if we actually win the Cup?" Victor still sounded bitter over not getting that waitress's number.

"I'll be over the moon if we win because it sounds like my team's all thinking with their cocks and hearts." He rolled his eyes and slammed his locker shut.

"Cut you a deal." Killian pressed his luck as he moved forward. "A friend of a friend of a girlfriend of mine is coming in and I really don't want this to turn into a date night situation in front of basically my kid sister."

"Belle's in town?" Archie smiled. "I was wondering why Ruby cancelled Saturday night."

"I'm not babysitting. End of discussion. Come on, let's group." Gold declined yet again and went to the center of the locker room.

Per their tradition that he brought in, every guy on the team got in a circle and put their arms on each other's shoulders. They put their heads together and went in a circle to say one thing they were going to win this game for. A daughter. A wife. A husband. A boyfriend. A son. To keep the house. To stay off the streets. To not go back. For family. For the team. For the team. For the team. For the honor. For the team, for the team, for the team. They could hear themselves over the fifty thousand people screaming above them to see the game they paid over a thousand dollars a ticket for. They took a moment of silence to hear the newfound fans chanting and clapping, screaming and yelling, all ready for the performance of a lifetime.

The unprecedented win of Game 1 was followed by a devastating loss of Game 2. Gold had let three pucks into his goal in the second quarter and it had gashed a hole into his ego. When in the locker room, though, he simply said the other team was better. Which was true. They were playing teams that had won the Stanley Cup 27 times all together and they had never gotten this far. When Gold got home, though, his tune changed. He sat in a dark room and cried for hours. All over the news for a straight week was how much of a screw up his playing had been. He heard it before the newscasters even said it. Gold ignored calls from his teammates, the manager, and David Nolan to figure out what the hell was going on. He didn't know. It had just been a really, really bad game. The reason why just made his chest hurt.

His entire reason for playing the game and coming to America to do so professionally was for his son. Baden Gold had been left behind in Scotland with his alcoholic mother when Gold couldn't get custody for both of them without the mother. He fought hard, tooth and nail to earn enough money to get his son over into the States. Playing on such an underrated team hadn't made that any easier. Every dime that he had went back to Scotland, intending for Baden to take care of himself for a little while. Almost ten years Gold had to wait to get as far as the Princes did and by that point, Baden was over eighteen. He'd left home and Gold had never heard from him again. Until two days before Game 2 when Bae showed up on his doorstep as Neal Cassidy.

So he didn't fight near as hard. And he felt guilty. And he felt terrible.

"Pop? I'm gonna make a run to the store. D'yah want anything?" Neal called from the other side of the bedroom door. Gold just didn't say anything.

Twenty five minutes later as Gold was mixing whisky into his cereal and thinking about how terrible of a father he was, Neal came back with a girl. Not just any girl and not just any pretty girl. A perfect pretty girl. With dark brown curls and blue eyes and soft looking skin and short skirts. Meanwhile Gold was standing in a tattered robe with little ducks on them in his fuzzy slippers.

"You'll never guess who I met at the coffee shop!" Neal beamed, passing a cup of the hot drink to his father. "You remember Belle don't you?"

"Killian's sister?" Gold couldn't see the resemblance at all.

"Is that what he's saying?" Belle scrunched her button nose as she laughed. "No, no. He's as much my brother as Neal is."

Gold felt incredibly sick all of a sudden.

"Yeah, though. Same Belle, but you don't remember? I wrote you about it? Exchanged student? Scotland got her and Australia got-"

Gold snapped his fingers. "Ms. Swan, that's right. You cried in your dorm for days." He outed, not knowing it was private information.

"I thought you were smitten over Tamara?" Belle questioned with an arched brow.

"Can we not talk about that!" Neal threw his hands up in the air. "I thought this was a nice visit, not a trip down the boulevard of broken dreams?"

Neal still accepted the unfortunate topic in conversation when it got his father to participate in something that didn't end in him sulking off to his room. Gold had never personally met Belle for very long, but he appeared to take to the fresh company right away. He even excused himself to go take a shower for the first time in four days. What Neal also noticed was Belle's ever lingering eyes. When Belle came to Scotland, Neal had gotten her seriously into hockey, specifically the Storybrooke Princes. She'd been completely besotted the moment she saw Aveyard Gold play alongside her friends and pen pals.

"Hey!" Belle yelled when Neal punched her shoulder.

"Stop staring. He's literally in a bathrobe and week old underwear. You're being disgusting." He mostly teased just to crack her dream sequence.

"I've got to make a run down to the stadium and hold a meeting. Are you two going to be alright here?" Gold returned in a three piece suit that made Belle's jaw drop.

"Ugh, just go!" Neal rolled his eyes and leaned back on the sofa.

"Er, alright. Ms. French, I'm sorry I have to run off so quickly. You'll have to join us for dinner later."

"I'd love to." She glistened at the offer while watching him roll up his sleeves. "Good luck with your meeting!"

"Good luck with your meeting." Neal mocked in a high pitched voice.

"Be nice." Gold scolded his son, wandering where this attitude was coming from all of a sudden. Belle just snickered in response.

Game 3 took place two days after that and the Storybrooke Princes won by four points. The next Game was five days later and if they won that, it would tie them and they'd have to win Game 5 to clench the Stanley Cup. The shit talking against Gold ceased and he was back in action to being the beast on the ice. Mayor Mills made June 5th Prince Pride Day and parking tickets were tripling for home games. Hotel rooms were booked through the rest of the next two months, more business than Granny ever had in her life. Bars were allowing access to their roofs for late night parties and were investing in higher quality televisions to show the games in their vicinity. Roads were getting blocked off to allow for block parties and schools were closing early on the week day games to allow for easier travel for out of towners.

Belle was in his house at the end of almost every single day. Hanging out with or just waiting until Neal got him, but it felt special to Gold. When she started popping over more often, she'd generally bring or make dinner and have it ready by the time all three of them were in the house. Once he walked in on her dancing around his kitchen and his heart stopped. He felt what Killian must when with one of his girlfriends combined with the familiarity Jefferson did when coming home to Grace. It was warm and the most natural thing in the world. Gold could have stood there and watched her for hours, but unfortunately, she had to spot him and he had to pretend to have just walked in the door. Alone at night in his mind, Belle either never caught him or didn't mind having an old man peer at her.

"It's Game 5 here in Storybrooke as the Princes take on the Dragons in a fairytale to rival Cinderella." Sidney Glass reported while standing in front of the arena among a sea of goldish yellow shirts. "I'm here with Ariel Fisher, wife of Eric Fisher, Prince manager Leroy Grum, and owner David Nolan. What a season this year!"

"It has been insane, but Avery's got the boys in shape and we're ready to head out tonight and show the Dragons some real heat." Leroy grinned, almost mischievously.

"How has Aveyard Gold got back in the winner's mentality after that devastating loss to the Dragons in Game 2?"

"Getting back in it implies that he ever wasn't and that's not the case. Gold's got an intense rep on the ice and fierce, beastly, competition streak. He's not gone home from practice this week without losing a little blood." David said before Leroy could get defensive.

"Well, we'll definitely see how Gold's blood, sweat, and tears affect his playing tonight, but first Ariel is going to sing the National Anthem before the Princes take on the Dragons in what could be the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs."

In the locker room, Aveyard Gold was ignoring his teammates plans for what would happen if they won tonight. All of their dreams and all of their aspirations were riding on his shoulders and if his reason for fighting tonight was going to be worth it. He couldn't rely on sheer talent like last time. They were passed the point of no return. Luck and strategy and no asshole refs stood between them and total victory. As captain, Gold was feeling the pressure.

_Unknown: Hey, it's Belle. Neal gave me your number. Just wanted to ask something._

_Gold: It's alright. What's up?_

_Belle: Well i was wondering since tomorrow's my last night and you'll be busy with parties tonight after you win if we could grab dinner together? just you and me?_

_Gold: I don't do win/lose parties if you want to make it tonight?_

_Belle: play a good game tonight and we'll see._

Before heading out onto the ice, Gold put in a pair of ear plugs. He didn't want anything to distract him tonight. He loved the crowd more than most anything in the world, but not for the next three quarters of game play. His sharp and flawless eye contact followed the puck and calculated every single angle that it could make. For the first quarter, he made block after block and both teams entered into the second quarter without either team scoring a point. Killian then got his head on straight and scored twice within the first five minutes of the second quarter. The Dragons challenged both times and got the second score taken away, making it a total of 1-0. Gold closed his eyes and took a deep breath when Jefferson got into a fist fight with another player. A puck got passed him despite all attempts to block it, making the score 1-1 going into the third and final quarter.

The stadium was uproarious with cheering for all of them, but mostly screaming Gold's name regardless of if he could hear it or not. Everything was riding on these next fifteen minutes. His heart was thudding harder than it could ever possibly. All players on ice started swarming him and the next few seconds happened in slow motion through a series of events Aveyard Gold would never forget. A Dragon going for the shot drew back his stick. Gold turned his body into an awkward transformation and the back of his shin took the hard hit and he collapsed. Searing, white hot pain sliced through his leg and he heard himself call out in blinding pain over the ear plugs. Silence filled the stadium. Every person in Scotland that shamed him and his father for their parenting abilities waited with bated breath to see what was going on with their kin. Jefferson started a fight with the Dragon that dealt the bone shattering hit. Tears slipped from his eyes when it dawned on him that he could not move.

Neal and tens of thousands of others followed him to the hospital when Archie wasn't going to be enough. Gold was taken into surgery immediately, but he knew he wasn't going back on that ice. He was awake enough to listen to the remainder of the game on the local radio station. The doctors put him under after Gold heard they won 2-1 when there was eleven seconds left in the game. They'd done it. All of them had clenched the Stanley Cup without him and he would later be glad that he'd been put under so he wouldn't cry over the fact.

He woke up fourteen hours later with pins and needles and staples in his shin just hoping that he might be able to walk on it again. The celebration parties would be over. Belle would be getting ready on a plane ride home. Everything was passing by and he'd caught nothing.

"Avery!" Belle's voice called through tears as she rushed forward and carefully hugged him. Doctors chased in after her, waking Neal up. "Hey! You can't be back here!"

"Relax, she's a crazy fan and his girlfriend." Neal muttered, standing up and stretching out. The doctors frowned, but left them alone.

"She's not my-"

"Shh. You're just under a lot of medication right now." Belle coaxed him quiet by stroking his cheek.

"Are you in any pain?"

Gold just looked up into her eyes and shook his head. "None at all."

"They gave him the good drugs. The kind they give pregnant women during labor." Neal grinned, but Belle found no amusement in it. "I'm going to go find us some lunch."

"Poor sweetheart." She frowned, hand working tirelessly to comfort him by caressing his face.

"I won. You can't go back to Australia. You owe me dinner."

"You scared me half to death. You owe me more than a dinner." She softly scolded, placing her forehead to his.

"Okay, but I can't play hockey anymore. If you want any more dinners, it's just going to have to be a date."

"I can handle that." She whispered then pressed her lips to his chin then leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Why haven't you left yet?" He asked, despite himself.

"I had very important dinner plans to celebrate your win." She half joked, hooking her thumb with his.

"What did you have in mind?"

"This is quite similar. Neal was going to be out so I wanted you all alone. I still do."

"I won't be able to walk normally, Belle. You want a goalie who can't guard the goal."

"You're right." She rose to face him again. "I do. I want him to look at me the way he does when I'm in his kitchen or stealing his fries. I've loved getting to know you these last few weeks. I could fall in love with you." Belle let him whisper her name in disbelief before kissing him full on the lips. His hand, still attached to the IV, reached up and lightly placed his hand on her shoulder to keep her there. He was already half in love with her and if she were to stay with him a second longer, he'd never let her go back to Australia without him.


End file.
